Reader comments on blogs and stories are often critical and suggest shadowy forces at work.

But I was still surprised at the animus in comments on stories about the stalled negotiations between the parent company of WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) and Time Warner Cable over fees the cable service pays to retransmit the station's programming.

Failure to reach an agreement led to WTMJ being blacked out on the cable service at midnight Wednesday.

"Can you say GREED," wrote one reader about WTMJ. "Is WTMJ going to provide a discount to its advertisers who aren't getting what they were promised and they paid for?"

Good question.

"We work closely with all our advertisers to make sure they get full value for the investment," said Steve Wexler, executive vice president of radio and TV for Journal Broadcast Group, in an email.

Journal Broadcast is owned by Journal Communications, which also owns the Journal Sentinel.

Another good question: Will Time Warner give customers a rebate for not carrying the station?

I asked this last year when WISN-TV (Channel 12) was off the cable system in a similar dispute and was told: Customers don't pay for individual channels. They pay for a channel package and the technology and service required to deliver it.

And yet a persistent reader told me last year that he received a $5 rebate.

"It wasn't easy," he wrote, "but I did it."

On Thursday, a follower of @TheDudekAbides on Twitter said he made a similar request and was denied. Another commenter asked why Time Warner should pay "anything for the 'right' to carry something freely available over the air with an antenna and is already carrying commercials? TWC is doing the networks a favor by carrying their signals."

The nonprofit group Public Knowledge, which focuses on communication law and policy, agrees.

"Should broadcasters be allowed to leverage their free spectrum and government-granted monopolies?" a columnist wondered in an essay on its website. "Why don't cable systems just start building antennas into their set-top boxes?"

Another reader questioned WTMJ's charge that Time Warner was not meeting the public's needs by failing to agree to a contract. "Apparently WTMJ thinks the public NEEDS '...The Winner Is' followed by 'Hollywood Game Night.' You are airing garbage like that...and want (twice) the cash. I don't see much leverage on your side of the table."

But one reader added: "How many subscriptions would Time Warner sell if they did not carry any local stations? My guess is very few. This is why (Time Warner) has to pay."

The previous contract expired June 30, but a loophole allowed WTMJ and five other Journal Broadcast stations to remain on the cable lineup through midnight Wednesday. Time Warner says Journal Broadcast wants a 200% increase in fees; Journal Broadcast says the increase is pennies per customer. An industry analyst estimated the fees could increase from about 42 cents per customer per month to 50 to 60 cents per customer over a three-year period.

Passion can often trump logic when commentators weigh in, but a general truth runs through their arguments.

Broadcasters, pay-TV services and consumers are stuck with a deteriorating symbiotic paradigm. Pay TV is a powerful delivery system, but it delivers content that broadcasters and cable channels produce and pay increasingly higher prices for. Fees paid by pay-TV companies subsidize these costs. And the higher prices are passed on to consumers.

Public Knowledge says broadcasters have systematic advantages over cable systems in these disputes because the law requires cable systems pay broadcasters to carry their signals and forbids offering broadcast channels à la carte.

"What's more," the essay continues, "local broadcasters have a legally protected local monopoly on national content they might have nothing to do with creating."

The loss of "America's Got Talent" may be no great loss, but the same people who sneer at it might change their tune if the blackout last long enough to affect Green Bay Packers preseason games airing on WTMJ starting Aug. 9.

"Many viewers are, understandably, tired of both of us arguing in public," said Wexler. "I agree."

Wexler said the cable company refused to agree to an extension of the previous agreement which expired June 30 and failed to respond to a new proposal "that we thought would get the negotiations going again."

He speculated Time Warner is preoccupied with similar negotiations with CBS-owned and -operated stations in some of the nation's biggest markets. The latest extension in that negotiation expires Monday.

In an emailed statement, Time Warner Cable spokesman Mike Hogan said: "We will work hard to bring the channels back to our customers' lineup. Journal's suggestion that we're not at the negotiating table is preposterous. Journal is fully aware that we have been and continue to be available to negotiate and that we are looking out for our customers."

The WTMJ building on E. Capitol Drive in Milwaukee is equipped with Time Warner cable and Wexler said he "had to put an antenna on my office TV to watch us," he said. "Looks excellent. Crystal-clear HD."

A viewer in Pewaukee begged to differ. She described "irregular reception" and wondered "if it's related to your battle with Time Warner Cable" or if the station "turned down" its signal to discourage over-the-air viewing. It's hard to see the upside of that strategy.

One unintended consequence of the WTMJ blackout: Elevators in the Journal Sentinel building have cable and had to be reprogrammed to get rid of the Time Warner blackout logo.

Meanwhile, the blackouts could affect WTMJ's up-and-down news ratings by testing viewing loyalty and causing audiences to sample other stations. The weeklong blackout of WISN last year caused its 10 p.m. newscast to lose an estimated 50,000 viewers a night. WTMJ won the November 2012 ratings sweeps, but WISN-TV rebounded to win every sweeps ratings since, including the just-concluded July sweeps.

The real winners in this dispute, however, may be manufacturers of the aluminum foil that some viewers can use to wrap around their antennas to improve their television signal reception and which conspiracy buffs can turn into hats.